19 May 2016

Election Results : The Aftermath

A few days back, I had the wonderful opportunity of sharing my room with a Hyderabadi, who had some pre-conceived notions about the Bengali community. Intellectual. Thinking class. Revolutionary. Lazy. Snobs. Elitism has been a fundamental part of our Bengali ideology since time immemorial, and as the saying goes, "Bengal aj ja bhabe, India sheta kal ke bhabe?"(What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow), a ruse maybe, our revolutionary, indomitable character is not a secret. Like every other citizen in this country, we scarcely buy what our politicians feed us, but nonetheless, stoop down to it with a bit of rancour. This election was no different, a bit tougher, ambigous, albeit very difficult to predict and favour.

Back in 2011, voting in Mamata felt like an immediate necessity to bring down the terror-politics of the leftist regime. She served as the symbol of justice and liberation for the masses who had been plundered under the reign of people like Jyoti Basu and Biman Basu. Keeping aside her dimwit nature, and her unsophistication, her party and herself served as a ray of light for the intellectuals and the commoners alike. The thirty four years of mis-governance, terror politics, some good ventures (most unnoticed) was overthrown by a person not belonging to a very rich or respectable family. A Mamata government (or should I say "Gorment") came to power, where the T.M.C cadre won the mistrust of people in the other party. The face being that of a lady, who was not only a powerful leader, but as a representative for the commoners, which promised"Poriborton"(change). Even while being a very staunch leftist, I rooted for the change, which seemed extremely necessary for this state, at that moment.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. For the ones who have followed the politics of the state for the last five years, this has been a terrible disappointment. The Mamata government exhausted their five years of tenure plundering the economy, creating widespread ruckus, and organising massive scams. Five years of rule under uneducated ministers like Shonali Guha, Firhad Hakim with their misrule, and their unruly behaviour in public and at the cabinet made the politics of this state the butt of jokes for the neighbouring states. Extorting money from the weak turned into an everyday practise, syndicate raj was no more a myth, and the whimsical and uncouth behaviour of the ones at the helm was intolerable. Park Street Rape case was a "Choto Ghotona", "Hok Kolorob" was a student-spread terror, Taniya Bharadwaj was a Mao-ist , and the Narada and the Sharada were all pre-planned "Chakranto". Their open threats to anyone and everyone who differed from them, or challenged their rule re-defined fascism under democratic tolerance, and we cannot but harp on certain members of the ruling party like Tapash Pal, Abhishek Banerjee.

A month back into the election frenzy, most of us did not really expect the coalition government to emerge victorious. But one thing we did expect is that this mis-governance would indeed raise awareness in the blinded masses, who would atleast question this rule. We expected that the people of Bengal would have the right amount of sense in casting their votes in favour of a party which would atleast pose as a serious opposition to the rulers. This day was indeed gloomy! It not only guaranteed people like Mukul, Tapash and Madan Mitra, that yes you can go ahead with your unruly behaviour, abuse commoners, spread terror, and accept bribes which has been telecasted on National Media, but your rule won't be under jeopardy. Frankly speaking, a clean sweep from the Green government came as a shock to me, not only because of the multiple scams and shams her party is involved in, but also because I had this inherent trust on the ‘Bangali’ intellect which we carry off with much pride.
My home is a place for passionate debates, and as my parents put it, Bengal is seeing more “light” than it has in the last 34 years in the current rule. The condition of roads, they say, has been better.
Of course. Each light costs around 17000 rupees each, and they are barely a meter away from each other, we DEFINITELY need to pay for them. While the superficial development, and the blue-white paints are in full progress, the rulers forget that the state's economy is going down by the day, and a chunk of the population are still without the job they were guaranteed.

I wonder how the Bengal mentality could support the ‘telebhaja’ industry, or the ministry that sanctions rapes, delegitimizes voices, and lets bridges break down. We definitely are unaware of options that could surpass this minister or her ministry, or her scandalous scams for the moments, but I wonder, is this where the demo’crazy’ is leading us?